Friday, July 13, 2012

When it comes to sports videos, there is nothing like those created by fans for hockey. Check out this great new fan made video celebrating the final round victory of the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions Los Angeles Kings. It gave me a wonderful chill to see it all again. A big Hat Tip to Jewels from the Crown.

The seventh edition of the Dodgers Playbill debuts with a cover featuring Dodger outfielders Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. See it above. Be sure to click on any pic to embiggen.

Woo Hoo!!! Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier are expected to be back in the Dodgers lineup tonight!

FYI, Matt Kemp will be on HBO's Real Sports with Bryan Gumbel this coming Tuesday, July 17th, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT. From an HBO press release:

The Toast of Tinseltown. Boasting a new $160 million contract, emerging superstar Matt Kemp is the heart and soul of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise. Kemp, 27, led the National League in home runs, runs batted in and runs scored last year, and was
recently chosen to be a starting National League All-Star for the second straight season, despite a nagging hamstring injury that will keep him from playing in Kansas City. This current success stands in sharp contrast to his humble Oklahoma upbringing. In a REAL SPORTS/Sports Illustrated collaboration, correspondent Jon Frankel talks with Kemp about how the Dodgers have put their faith in him as a leader, and the pressures that come with that vote of confidence.

"It feels really great to be here in Arizona training with the team
that's going to make my dream come true to play in the Major Leagues,"
Puig said through an interpreter. "My plan is to play in the big
leagues. That's why I am here. I feel I'm ready, but it's up to them.
I'm training as hard as I can to get there. "

Beckett provides an early look at Topps newest Baseball card product called 2012 Topps Mini's. It will be smaller versions of their flagship card set (it will be the same size as the 1975 Topps Mini cards) with new autograph and relic cards. To the right is a Clayton Kershaw relic game-used card. Go to Beckett's post to see more samples.

In case you haven't seen it yet. Here's a look at the Tommy Lasorda/ Walter Alton bobblehead being given out tomorrow. This will be the 6th bobblehead given out this year. BTW, Alston's grandson, Rob Ogle, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch that evening.

Check out this video from E! Online featuring Magic Johnson as he talks a bit about the Dodgers and a Broadway show called "Magic/Bird". Broadway? Really, Magic? Go here for some background about this play.

The Stanley Cup is in Quebec with Kings left winger Simon Gagne, Dudley Do-Right, and friends. Via twitter @keeperofthecup.

Card case-breaker brentandbrenda on twitter shared a pic of 30 cases of 2012 Allen & Ginter they are opening. 30 CASES! It looks like card heaven at their house.

Following up on several pastpost featuring vintage comic postcards in my collection, I bring to you more to gaze at. These are very reminiscent of the postcards I shared earlier this week. They show ladies and gentlemen in the throes of romance while on the ballfield.

These date to 1900's to 1910's, and can be found at very affordable prices. $5.00 to $10.00 a piece is all you should pay. Heck, they can be had for cheaper if you can find a large lot of them for sale.

Hake's Auctions, a large Americana seller, has a new auction up that is filled with some Baseball rarities. They, once again, have a bunch of items from the Richard Merkin Collection of Negro League scarcities that includes several vintage Dodger players. I'll have a post featuring those items early next week. For today, though, I wanted to focus on an illustration Hake's has for sale that was drawn by my favorite sports artist Willard Mullin.

This particular drawing was published in the NY World Telegram on September 20, 1956, and is titled "Down the Drain". The Brooklyn "Bum" is seen digging sand out of hourglass and shoveling
it in face of Milwaukee Braves mascot. At the time of this publishing, the Dodgers were just a half game back of the Milwaukee Braves. It had been a year long struggle to catch up to 1st place as the Braves held on to the top billing for most of the season. Now, with just 9 games remaining in the year, the Dodgers find themselves closer to another World Series berth.

It appears this original drawing was given by Mullin to an adoring fan. On the lower right it says, “Willard Mullin-With Best Wishes To Mrs. Anna Wooley…A True Dodger
Fan.”

One of the more anticipated Baseball card sets of the season has now officially been released. Check out the Dodgers base cards to the 2012 Allen & Ginter Baseball card set below. As always, there are numerous variations and parallels to each card. There are black bordered cards, mini cards, back variations, and even cards made of wood. I'll follow up with pics of some of the inserts in a future post.

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“There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey. There’s nothing like it in sports. I don’t care that I’ve never been anywhere else. I don’t care. There’s nothing like wearing a Dodger jersey.” -- A.J. Ellis